As of July 29 at 9AM, the evacuation order for Old El Portal has been lifted.

As of July 27, a Type 1 Interagency Management Team, from Southern California, was given command of this fire. The fire is on both NPS lands and Stanislaus National Forest. Joint Unified Command has been established.

On July 26, at approximately 3:15, the El Portal fire began in the community of El Portal.

This is (obviously) still a major fire and we're far from out of the woods on it but the 19% contained number is a significant jump from the 5% they were reporting less than 24 hours ago. That's good news of a sort. Here's hoping that this one is fully under control within the next several days (or less!).